Arthur: A day of highs and lows ends with short track silver for Canada

SOCHI, Russia — It happened again, and Marianne St-Gelais was watching again, in her red-and-white speed-skating suit. This time, though, she hadn’t already reached the safe emotional harbour that can be reached after a race; she was about to race for a medal, and she was watching the love of her life, Charles Hamelin, slip and fall in yet another event he had a chance to win. It happened again.

“Nononono, c’est pas vrai!” she shouted, according to teammate Marie-Ève Drolet. No, no, no, she shouted at the screen. It’s not true.

She hates watching him fall. It was three days ago that she was talking about how he went down at nationals one time and she still had to race and she was crying, worried about his ankle, until he came to talk to her. This time, they didn’t have time to talk.

“When I went out of the room Charles came in, and I just heard bing, bang, bang, so he was pretty mad,” she said. “I just kept saying to myself, no, you have something to do. After that you’re going to see Charles and just go for it with him, and I know Charles is really disappointed. It’s hard. It’s hard. Because I’m really happy for him when he’s winning, but I’m really sad when some shit like that happens.”

St-Gelais is a woman of beautifully electric emotions, and she had already had to blow off emotional steam after crashing earlier in the day in qualifying heats for the 1,000 metres; she was bumped by a Dutch skater, but judges ruled she had fallen on her own.

“It was really important for me to take some time off, and not bring all my anger and what happened in the 1,000 to the final,” said St-Gelais. “Because I didn’t want these girls to pay for what I’ve done. So yeah, I just took some time.”

She walked outside to the parking lot in the rain, fending off anyone who wanted to talk to her, screaming, screaming at the low grey Sochi clouds. “I was really mad for maybe like 10 minutes,” she said, “and after that it was done. I need those 10 minutes, though.”

But after Hamelin’s fall, St.-Gelais didn’t have 10 minutes, because it was time for the women’s 3,000-metre relay. She turned to Yves Hamelin, Charles’s father, and Canada’s team leader.

Charles Hamelin of Canada falls in his men’s 500m qualifying heat in the short track event during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, February 18, 2014. Photo by Jean Levac/Postmedia News

She was on the team that won silver in the 3,000 in Vancouver, and this time St-Gelais started, and she, Drolet, Jessica Hewitt and Valérie Maltais were attempting a strategy they had not attempted all season. Called “Commando”, it entailed Hewitt and Drolet taking double laps early to save Maltais’s legs for the finish; it would hopefully throw off the timing of the Chinese or the Koreans, Canada’s biggest competitors. It required focus; Drolet said, “I didn’t even hear the crowd.” Hewitt described the race like “It’s like watching a movie, and not actually being in the movie.”

China and Korea led most of the way with Canada close until Korea, disqualified four years ago, seized the race on the last lap. Canada finished third. But during the race China was leaving skaters in their lanes after push-exchanges, which is illegal; they were disqualified. Yves said the Koreans did the same, but got away with it. Still, silver. Glorious. And at trackside, there was Hamelin.

After his second fall on the soft ice — short-track skaters have had to share with figure skating, which prefers softer ice — he had stomped into the dressing room, thrown his Powerade bottle, checked his skates to make sure they were sharp. He replayed the race in his head, thinking why, why, why? And then he didn’t want the other skaters to see any more, so he walked into the bathroom and into a stall, and he started to cry. Yves said he had never seen his son cry after a race before.

Team Canada celebrates their silver medal victory in the women’s 3000m final of the short track events during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, February 18, 2014. Photo by Jean Levac/Postmedia News

“I came to see if he was OK,” said Yves. “The first thing that I said was, let it go. Scream and yell, let it go.”

And then Charles calmed down, just like Marianne had stayed calm, and he went to watch the love of his life race. And when it was done he saw her smile her sunshine smile, thrilled, thrilled, and when they embraced and kissed at trackside, like they had in Vancouver, she was the one who cried. Because she was happy for herself, and because she was sad for him.

“That’s her,” said Yves. “She let it go. She let it out.”

Team Canada competes in the women’s 3000m final of the short track events during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, February 18, 2014. Photo by Jean Levac/Postmedia News

This sport is about speed and courage and trying not to fall, but sometimes you fall, and you have to get back up. Charles said he would race the same way again, and he was more proud of Marianne than he was sad about himself. Drolet said, “She did so good by just putting her mind into the relay and just trying to forget everything. She was pretty strong.”

“I was really sad for him,” said St-Gelais, “because he never falls, and he fell twice at the Olympics.”

Hamelin won gold here in the 1,500, and twice he fell, and that’s short track. “Short track is a sport that is really exciting,” he said, “and can be really, really glorious for some people, and sometimes can be really rude and really cruel for some other people.”

Sometimes it’s both, on the same day. Sometimes, everybody cries.

barthur@nationalpost.com
twitter.com/bruce_arthur

Charles Hamelin of Canada shows his dejection after falling in his men’s 500m qualifying heat in the short track event during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, February 18, 2014.

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